The Immortal’s Poison

There were five supreme monasteries at the Great Mercy Temple: One Prime Deed, Triple Illuminated, Six Passes, Eight Samsara, and Ten Modes. The One Prime Deed Monastery is ranked as the first place but no one could have expected that the most important position of great power within the Buddhist cultivators would be lead and managed by a little boy.

Leyang Wen’s face held a gleam of surprise, “Wasn’t the seat of honor for the One Prime Deed Monastery lead by the divine monk Hope Sense?”

The little monk stuttered as he answered, “That…s-s-senior fellow apprentice…has other im-im-important matters, f-f-few months ago he allowed me t-to take the seat of honor.”

The short man, Leyang Wen, nodded his head while deep in thought. He then laughed out loud, “Congratulations, little divine monk! A congratulatory gift will be delivered to you from Painting Town in three days’ time to celebrate the little divine monk’s success in leading the One Prime Deed Monastery.”

The fat monk, Water Mirror, followed behind him and prompted him anxiously, “Why are you wasting your precious words on them, we should go up, quick!”

Most of the rogue cultivators had the same intention and they nodded in agreement with one after another. The holders of the five supreme monasteries’ seats of honors were all present here and needless to say, they surely rushed out to Zhanyan Peak for the hidden treasure as well. If the rogue cultivators were tardy with their actions, the treasure would certainly have fallen into another’s hands.

The one who had spoken first earlier, Hope Phase from the seat of honor at the Triple Illuminated Monastery, had a voice which sounded aged and solemn. The tone of his voice was filled with benevolence and compassion to all as he once again started speaking slowly, “The Le Yang family of Painting Town has a considerable reputation, they are as slippery as an eel and conduct themselves loftily. This aged monk has great respect for them but there is one incident that we do not understand, so will Lord Le Yang please give us your guidance.”

One of the tattooed muscular thugs behind Leyang Wen’s body spoke up suddenly, “Hey monk, stop your hypocritical nonsense! As soon as the young master of our family arrived in Mount Emei each and every one of you started hiding. We can only hear your voice but we cannot see you, is this how the Great Mercy Temple receives its guests?” The voice of the muscular man was loud and forceful like the cross strike of two sharp blades. It pierced directly towards the sky and hummed in Wen Leyang’s ears while it trembled and echoed continuously in the air.

Leyang Wen smiled as he waved his arm, trying to subdue his underling, “This subordinate of my family was uncourteous and he had made a fool out of himself in front of the divine monk. Please forgive this transgression and please do not hesitate to ask anything from us.”

“The Great Mercy Temple at Mount Emei has no connections to the Le Yang family of Painting Town and there are definitely no old grudges. So this aged monk does not understand why Lord Le Yang would lead this group of rogue cultivators and force their way into this mountain in a threatening manner?”

Leyang Wen was still grinning from ear to ear but he had changed his mouthful of fluent Beijing dialect into a polished and civilized accent, “Divine monk, what you have said is rather weighty and I am afraid that I can’t agree with it. If the old and young masters of the Great Mercy Temple were to arrive at our one acre and three-point land, even if the Le Yang family was in poverty, we will still respectfully receive all of you warmly…” Halfway through his speech, the short man abruptly shut his mouth. If he had continued speaking he would have criticized that the opposing party was not hospitable towards their guests.

It felt like half a day had passed before the divine monk Hope Phase’s heavy sigh echoed from the middle of the sky.

This was followed by the little stuttering monk who stammered as he tried to persuade them to leave, “L-l-lord…Le Yang, quick…go d-down the mountain…eh…all of us h-have some important matters…it’s o-our discourtesy so d-d-don’t mind…”

Hope Aware from the seat of honor at the Ten Modes Monastery was not as patient and had the most explosive temperament out of the other monks. He interrupted the stuttering monk’s speech roughly and threatened, “Leyang Wen, you have been guiding a group of demons and ghouls to intrude on the restricted grounds of the Great Mercy Temple! Do you really think that, as monks, we only know how to read scriptures and know nothing about the art of self-defense?”

The muscular thug guffawed loudly, “What a joke! Since when did Zhanyan Peak become your restricted ground? The monks of Mount Emei are as arrogant as expected, whichever place they fancy they can call it a restricted ground. If you really are of exceptional abilities, every person in the world will soon shave their heads and become monks!”

Hope Aware was extremely angered but he only laughed in return. The sound of his laughter surged in waves within the clouds. The short man did not respond but turned and gave the rogue cultivators a wink. He extended his arm and pointed upwards as he cried out once, “Everybody ascend the mountain, start running!”

The rogue cultivators roared in agreement. All of them fixed their focus on the goal of ascending the mountain as they stretched their legs and started running forward at full speed. The crowd was in an uproar and the procession was split into many smaller groups. When seen from afar they resembled a bunch of toads jumping and leaping with agile movements on a huge rock.

Wen Leyang too hastily carried Wen Xiaoyi on his back and climbed towards the direction of the ancient cave on Zhanyan Peak with great effort.

Hope Aware’s laughter stopped abruptly as he yelled savagely out of rage, “The Buddha has no concrete form and therefore all living creatures also have no concrete form! I cast the spell of Heaven’s Omniscient Eye!”

The fast chanting of a Buddhist hymn resounded in the sky as the dense and warm golden light suddenly blazed fiercely by a thousand million times. The mountain below the crowd’s feet started shaking vigorously.

The golden light had turned into a solid glow, it did not block the physical body but it completely obstructed one’s vision. The rogue cultivators who were running up the mountain cried out in alarm as they became blinded one by one.

Wen Leyang too let out a bitter cry as the vision in front of his eyes became a stretch of sweeping gold color. He could not see anything in front of him at all. However, after a short moment, he could see things as vividly and clearly as before. The pores on his entire body were swiftly constricting and relaxing, relaying everything that was happening around him straight to his heart. It was as if he was being pulled out of his current surroundings; nature belonged to nature, while he was on a separate plane of existence altogether.

Wen Leyang felt that he was having an out of body experience as he surveyed and observed the surroundings from a third person’s viewpoint, like a spectator watching a movie in a panoramic three-dimensional movie theater. What he saw was this:

The fat monk, Water Mirror, ran incessantly in the golden light. He soon bumped into a mountain rock that was taller than two people.

The old monk Ji Fei’s one leg reached over the edge of a cliff and oops…the old fellow had fallen off the cliff.

Mumu’s black, shiny eyes were open wide as her arms extended straight in front of her, trying to feel her way up the mountain. Her delicate and lovely face was filled with worry but Ah Dan, the undead toddler, calmly followed step by step behind its master.

Giant Bull sat on the ground in a slump as he angrily blinked his eyes to clear them. Every once in a while, some scampering rogue cultivator would utter an ‘ouch’ and trip over him.

The three muscular thugs formed a triangular battle formation around their boss as rays upon rays of dense golden light surrounded them like syrup.

On the other hand, Lord Leyang, who was under the strict protection of his underlings, was bent over as he drew something on a large sheet of Chinese rice paper…

Wen Leyang entered the self-cultivation process using poison. He had tempered poison directly into his body and his power differed vastly from the other cultivators throughout the ages. His power can forcefully pull his awareness out from this world, whereas the other cultivators would use their hearts to sense the world and would fear any disturbances to their state of mind. Wen Leyang, on the other hand, was using every part of his body to experience the world, as long as his physical body existed, he will be able to detect every change in his surroundings.

Mumu was burning with anxiety for the golden light was like a sheet of opaque yellow cloth glued onto her eyes. After a while, she could no longer tell whether the glow was too bright or if she had already lost her sight as she could not see her hands even if she held them in front of her own face. Suddenly, she felt something and her left hand was gripped by a powerful and large hand.

Mumu yelled out as her other hand reached for the pair of Spirit Needles and blindly stabbed them towards the direction of the person next to her. Soon after another strong hand gripped her wrist as a familiar voice sounded next to her ear, “It’s me, Wen Leyang. Wen Xiaoyi, please aim the blunderbuss higher or you’d hit my face!”

The two young girls simultaneously heaved a sigh of relief as they both asked with curiosity, “You can see?”

Thud!

A dull crash sounded from nearby and the two young girls were taken back by the noise. Wen Leyang consoled them as he laughed in a low voice, “Don’t be alarmed, Water Mirror monk has just bumped into a rock.”

The divine monk Hope Aware’s loud laughter once again sounded from the sky, “The disciples of Ten Modes Monastery, release the demon-slayer defense!”

The deafening sound of yelling shook the heavens as a swarm of monks pounced on the rogue cultivators like a group of raging leopards. The monk’s hands were held in the gesture of a Buddhist mudra and they started striking at the blinded rogue cultivators. They chanted ‘Amitabha’ each time they landed a blow and recited the word twice if they struck two blows.

However, even though the mudra contained great power within the monk’s hands, they appeared to show mercy by striking away from the vital parts of their enemies’ bodies, hitting the tops of their feet instead.

The group of rogue cultivators, on the other hand, were extremely unfortunate. They had a taste of Hope Aware’s rage as he brilliantly displayed his magical power through the Heaven’s Omniscient Eye spell. He devised this spell from the twenty-eight sets of scriptures from the God Emperor’s All-Seeing Eye and used the golden light to seal the vision of the rogue cultivators, blinding them for the time being. This showed the clear difference in strength between the different types of cultivators as with just one strike, the monk’s attack has already affected everyone. Those who had poor abilities would never be able to get rid of the spiritual shackles he had placed on them.

The shrill cries of rogue cultivators were rising and falling from all directions, the attacking monks were the disciples and disciple’s disciples of the divine monk Hope Aware from the seat of honor at Ten Modes Monastery. Despite being in the golden light and under the Heaven’s Omniscient Eye spell, the monk’s vision and telegnosis abilities were not affected at all.

Out of the three sins of the world: hitting the blind, cursing the deaf, and chasing the lame, hitting the blind was considered the vilest sin to commit out of the three. The Great Mercy temples monks, holy practitioners of Buddha’s sacred principles, were committing the sin with great delight.

Wen Leyang carried Wen Xiaoyi on his back as he pulled Mumu along. He led them to safety and they cautiously hid behind a gigantic rock.

The short man had finally completed his painting and he stretched out his hand to toss the painted scroll into the air as he laughed loudly, “The Ten Modes Monastery is nothing compared to this!”